The present invention relates to automatic rendition style determining apparatus and methods for determining musical expressions to be applied on the basis of characteristics of performance data. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved automatic rendition style determining apparatus and method which, during a real-time performance, permit automatic execution of a performance expressing a so-called “tonguing” rendition style.
Recently, electronic musical instruments have been used extensively which electronically generate tones on the basis of performance data generated as a human player operates a performance operator unit or on the basis of performance data prepared in advance. The performance data used in such electronic musical instruments are organized as MIDI data etc. corresponding to individual notes and musical signs and marks. If pitches of a series of notes are constructed or represented by only tone pitch information, such as note-on and note-off information, an automatic performance or the like of tones, executed by, for example, reproducing the performance data, would become a mechanical and expressionless performance which is therefore musically unnatural. So, there have been known automatic rendition style determining apparatus which, in order to make an automatic performance based on performance data more musically natural, more beautiful and more realistic, permit an automatic performance while determining various musical expressions, corresponding to various rendition styles, on the basis of performance data and automatically imparting the determined rendition styles. One example of such automatic rendition style determining apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2003-271139. The conventionally-known automatic rendition style determining apparatus automatically determines, on the basis of characteristics of performance data, rendition styles (or articulation) characterized by musical expressions and a musical instrument used and imparts the thus automatically-determined rendition styles (or articulation) to the performance data. For example, the automatic rendition style determining apparatus automatically determines or finds out locations in the performance data where impartment of rendition styles, such as a staccato and legato, is suited, and newly imparts the performance data at the automatically-found locations with performance information capable of realizing or achieving rendition styles, such as a staccato and legato (also called “slur”).
To determine a rendition style to be applied to at least two notes that should be generated in succession, the conventionally-shown automatic rendition style determining apparatus is arranged to acquire performance data of a succeeding or second one of the two notes prior to arrival of an original performance time of the second note and then, on the basis of the acquired performance data, determines a rendition style to be applied to the at least two notes (so-called “playback”). Thus, the conventional automatic rendition style determining apparatus has the problem that it is difficult to apply, during a real-time performance, a so-called “tonguing rendition style” (or rendition style representative of a reversal of a bow direction that characteristically occurs during a performance of a stringed instrument). Namely, during a real-time performance, performance data are supplied in real time in accordance with a progression of the real-time performance without being played back. With a rendition style, such as a legato rendition style (or slur rendition style), for sounding at least two notes in succession, performance data (specifically, note-on event data) of the succeeding or second one of the notes can be obtained prior to the end of a performance of the preceding or first one of the notes; thus, a legato rendition style, which is a joint-related rendition style connecting the end of the first note and beginning of the second note, can be applied to the beginning of the second note. However, with a tonguing rendition style or the like where two notes are sounded with an instantaneous break therebetween, it is not possible to acquire performance data (specifically, note-on event data) of the second note at the end of the performance of the first note; thus, it is not possible to make a determination as to which one of an ordinary or normal rendition style and tonguing rendition style should be applied to the beginning of the second note. Therefore, in the case where two successive notes are separated from (i.e., not connected with) each other, it has been conventional to apply a release-related rendition style leading to a silent state and attack-related rendition style rising from a silent state to the end of the first note and beginning of the second note, respectively. Thus, heretofore, even where a tonguing rendition style is applicable, no tonguing rendition style could be actually applied and a normal rendition style would be applied instead of a tonguing rendition style, so that no tonguing rendition style could be expressed during a performance.